"We want HQ2," Booker said, referring to the Amazon offices by their nickname. "We’ve sent that message out already."

ADVERTISEMENT

The Democratic presidential candidate told Cheddar that while he "applauds" the local community in New York for raising issues specific to their neighborhood, Newark leaders have mobilized around bringing in Amazon.

"In Newark, we have a local grass-roots effort to try to bring Amazon there," Booker said. "We are a city that’s built for a significantly larger population, has indigenous infrastructure, has incredible assets … our local community leaders have decided that we would like to see Amazon come."

An Amazon spokesperson when the company canceled the New York plans last week said that it would not be searching for a new site at this time. It still plans to build offices in Northern Virginia.

Booker has faced some criticism from left, with progressives criticizing him as weak on corporations and Wall Street.

Amazon's New York cancellation has provided another opportunity for Democratic presidential candidates to draw battle lines over where they stand on big tech corporations, a division that highlights the growing rift between business-friendly Democrats and the ascendant left wing.

Sanders in his announcement video on Tuesday highlighted his battle with Amazon over the company's working conditions, staking out his position as a critic of large corporations. Sanders's months of Amazon criticism culminated with the company upping their minimum wage to $15 an hour, which Sanders claimed as a success.

"The people of New York and America are increasingly concerned about the power of large multinational corporations and the billions in corporate welfare they receive," Sanders said in a statement after the New York HQ2 was canceled last week. "Our job is to end the race to the bottom where taxpayers in one city or state are forced to bid against each other for desperately needed jobs. This is what the rigged economy is all about."

Amazon said that it was pulling back from the New York plans because of the opposition it faced from local leaders.